Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1887-03-12

ga year this Michaelmas," said the
landlady; "and never leech can
cure her. l have tried them all the
country round, and paid them well,
but there sits the poor child, growing
worse and worse, and surely shaking
into her grave"
"What does her father say? Is
there none in London that could tell
! you what to do?"
''Her father, sir, has been dead
these three years. am poor wild
dow, and have spent all he left mein
trying to cure the child, but it is of
no avail. Poor Jess! poor Jess"
The stranger looked troubled-as he
was. To ride away from an inn with
out paying his bill was bad enough
but to cheat poor widow in distress,
for whose sick child she had sacrific-
ed her means of living, was-well,
the act of q scoundrel.
The Oxonian wished he had never
left Oriel; hefelt thoroughly ashamed
ofhimself. So genuine was his shame
that it might be thought he was fair
ly on the path of reformation, and
would thenceforward keep to it. But
it was not SO with him ;'and there are
very many like him.
He was all right until he took an
other sip at the wine which the host
ess had temptingly placed within his
reach, and which, at the moment he
had resolved to rob the poor woman
no more, he, in pure absent-minded-
ness, lifted to his lips and uncon-
sicously drank. AS he put down the
empty fagon he caught sight of the
new moon through the window, and
as his gaze was returning to the fire
it rested for moment on the patient,
pallid-faced girl.
She was undoubtedly ill, and he
sympathized with her. Shewas pref
ty, and he admired her. Butthe low
type of face, with narrow, sloping
forehead, the furitive eyes, and the
weak-willed mouth and chin, told
her character so Enthusiastically that
an idea suggested itself to him which
he welcomed with delight. A fig for
his resolves! Here was a way out of
: his difficulties!
J "What is the time of your daugh-
ter's attack?"
"The fitwill come to her at eleven"
} "I will cure herw
: y "Thou! Art thou a physician ?"
. II have studied with the wisest
: where wisdom dwells. Let your
daughter do as 1 direct, and the ague
; will depart from her."
cart thou willing, jess ?" asked
: the mother.
The girl turned her head, but the
J strangers eyes were on her, and she
t whispered eyes"
: "Then | will be back in a briei
5 space. / 60 to seek some potent herbs
under the rays of the young MOON"
The student went out laughing tC
S himself at his new device, and think
+ ing over the part he was to play. He
' walked down the garden, jumped the
| palings, crossed the meadow, and fol.
Y lowed for time the bank of the
S stream, whose ripples cleaned with
e the silver sprinkles from the moon
! A leaf of herb-robert he took, ther
4 a small coltsfoot and jack-sauce-by
: the-hedge, then some scorpion grass
f then a four-leaved paris, and a twig
;, of broom. Then he returned to thu
kitchen, looking unutterable things,
e and laid his leaves on the table, TIT
y coltsfoot at one end, the herb-rOber
at the other, the scorpion grass anC
|, dogs mercury in the middle, will
/ the broom next to the paris. Thel
e he put the leaves in cup and rubbed
l. them together for a time, whispering
to himself so as to be heard by tn
Il invalid:
"Eta, zeta, theta, phi kappa, delta
IS lambda, pi; sigma, gamma, beta, mu
g alpha, tau, epsilon, nu; psi, chi, up
e silon, sho; syklopedeia may the agu
o gow
;; Then he opened the window tina
II the moon might shine in the cup,anC
e he took out some of the leaves ant
Is rolled them in a strip of parchmen
1t about. the size of cigarette paper
IF which he cut from his pocket-book
e Then he tied the roll with a silkel
J. string and sealed it, but, he did nc
t, use his own seal, for he pressed on tn
d wax a leaf Of scorpion grass which h
had accidentally dropped on the fiool
,e GA piece of riband," he said to tn
g hostess-the first words he had &C
% dressed to her since he entered wit